Role of p16 and p53 in oral potentially malignant disorders and oral squamous cell carcinoma: A study in Malaysia

Ninety-five percentages of oral cancer are classified as oral squamous cell carcinoma (oscc). p16 and p53 are protein in human cell cycle regulation that can play role as tumour suppressor genes. the purpose of the research is to detect p16 and p53 expressions in oral potentially malignant disorders (opmds) and oscc using immunohistochemistry (ihc). a total of 87 formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tissue were selected comprising of opmds cases (n=32),oscc cases (n=46) and normal oral mucosa (n=9). the cases were retrieved from the archives of the oral pathology laboratory,faculty of dentistry,ukm,institute of medical research and hospital tunku mizan. the ihc staining was manually performed using p16 antibody (1:1000) (abcam) and p53 antibody (clone do-7,dako,denmark) following manufacturer's instruction and assessed semi-quantitatively (positivity and staining intensity) between all groups. positive and negative controls were used to validate the ihc run. all data were then analysed using spss version 22.0 and p values < 0.05 were considered significant. the p16 were found positive in oscc (96.7%) and in opmds (84.38%). there is significantly higher p16 positivity in oscc compared to normal oral mucosa (p < 0.001). the p53 expression was detected in opmds and oscc. there are significant differences between p53 expression among in nom and oscc (p < 0.01) as well as opmds and oscc (p < 0.05). in this present study,p16 and p53 expressions were increased following degree of malignancy. the finding suggests that p16 and p53 can be used as a potential marker for oral malignancy detection.